Maoists killed two policemen and abducted 70 others in an attack on a police outpost at Holkari village in Rolpa district 650 kms northwest of the capital Thursday morning coinciding with a nation-wide strike called by rebels to protest the preventive detention regulations, official sources said.
Reinforcements were sent to the district, sources said. Rukum is one of seven out of 75 administrative districts where the army has been deployed to contain a five-year communist insurgency that has claimed more than 1,700 lives; the government is contemplating deploying soldiers in more areas as the insurgency spreads.
Insurgents killed one policeman, injured seven others and abducted two in an attack on a police post at Harichaur in Baglung district in far west Nepal Wednesday night, police said.
There were no casualties when army and police jointly repulsed an attempt by Maoists to overrun the district headquarters Khalanga Bazzar of Jumla in far west Nepal Thursday. They first tried to break open a prison there, security sources said.
Maoists destroyed police posts in several districts as well Thursday during the strike, police said. They torched a passenger bus traveling to Jhapa from the capital in
Beldanghi in Morang district in east Nepal Thursday, a Home Ministry spokesman said. Security officials defused effigy bombs in several towns including Mahendranagar in far west Nepal, sources said.
The strike affected urban areas nation-wide as life came to a halt when businesses, schools and industrial establishments closed out of fear. Rebels have threatened retaliatory action against shops and vehicles that defied the strike call.
Insurgents Wednesday night destroyed government offices and police posts in Kavre, Banke, Dharan and several other places ahead of the strike, police said. Nobody was injured in a stampede in Dhankuta town in east Nepal during the strike, police said.
Maoists set off explosions at the home of former Minister of Tourism Tarani Dutta Chataut in west Nepal and abducted former ruling party member of parliament Gobinda Bahadur Shah in Achham district in far west Nepal Tuesday, police said.
No violence was reported in Kathmandu Valley Thursday.